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Tuesday, 30 November 2010

In Malaysia, death by a bullet discharged from the firearm of a trigger-happy policeman is now fast becoming 'death by natural causes'.

On 26 Apr 2010, Aminulrasyid Amzah was shot after he tried to flee a roadblock. He did not stand a chance. The 15 year old was killed immediately.

Granted, the kid had no drivers licence and was a menace on the road. But his car was riddled with 30 bullets. No pun intended when I use the term 'overkill'.

On 17 Oct 2010, five foreigners were shot dead after they were suspected to be robbers. Say if two were killed and three injured, there may be some semblance of 'law enforcement'. This reeks of cold-blooded murder.

On 16 Nov 2010, Ho Chei Hang was shot 4 times by plainclothes police officers in Kepong. Yet he was charged for 'attempting to murder' the police officer who had shot at him from behind!

On 13 Nov 2010, Mohd Shamil Hafiz Shapiei, was shot dead at about 4am on a street in Glenmarie in Shah Alam, Selangor. He was about a week away from turning 16.

Makes you wonder - at this rate, how many people exactly have been killed in this manner? Take a look at the government statistics:

A total of 279 suspects have been shot dead by the police between 2000 and 2009, while 147 died in police lockup during the same period, revealed Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein today.

For a country with a population of 28 million, those are not very positive numbers. Cast aside the fact that I don't trust the government and believe the numbers may be higher.

What is frightening is the perpetrators are those who are supposed to be protecting us.

These days, they either shoot citizens point blank or stand by as others inflict violence on their fellow citizens - check out this video I saw that shows how people take the law into their own hands.

The policeman on the right stands by and does nothing

If you don't even have a twinge of conscience while reading this, may God have mercy on you for stepping back and doing nothing as these atrocities continue to be committed in broad daylight.

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Now here is one dude who belongs to UMNO in heart and spirit. His name is Phil Woolas.

During the general elections, it was alleged that Woolas used doctored photographs, misrepresented facts and stooped to fomenting racial and religious divisions in his Labour leaflets that he handed out.

He claimed that his opponent, Elwyn Atkins, was paid off by a rich Arab sheikh and was in cahoots with the Muslim fundamentalists. This was naturally of concern to the voting public, who may have possibly voted against Atkins.

Now, this is nowhere as bad as Malaysia, where they put Opposition leaders behind bars just around election time to keep them from contesting.

Or repeatedly accused them of homosexuality, playing to a conservative gallery like Mahathir the grandmaster did.

Politicians all over the world are like diapers. They need to be changed frequently, and for the same reason.

However, unlike Mahathir, Phil Woolas has found his election void as the Court has ordered a rerun of the parliamentary seat poll.

This is because the judicial and executive arms of the UK government administration are divorced from each other - unlike in Malaysia, where they are blissfully in bed trying to conceive chaos and disorder to remain in power.

Sunday, 7 November 2010

(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is praising Malaysia’s commitment to religious tolerance as she visits the Muslim-majority country.

“Extremism is not a path to building sustainable prosperity, peace, stability or democracy — it only promotes conflicts and hardens hearts,” she told reporters at a joint news conference November 2 with Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.

Clinton said the United States fully supports Malaysian efforts to create a global interfaith dialogue, which Anifah said began with a proposal that Prime Minister Najib Razak made to the U.N. General Assembly in September.

Anifah said the proposed initiative “promotes mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and rejects extremists who undermine the universal values of religion.” The initiative’s goal is to create a global movement of moderates, he said.

Clinton did not meet with the prime minister, who was sick during her visit, but did speak to him by telephone. Clinton said she had raised the trial of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim with Anifah.

“The United States believes it is important for all aspects of the case to be conducted fairly and transparently in a way that increases confidence in the rule of law in Malaysia,” Clinton said, adding that the United States would continue to follow the matter. The government has denied there is any conspiracy against Anwar, and Anifah said Anwar will receive a “fair and open trial.”

“It is in my interest and in our interest to make sure that Anwar gets a fair trial because if there is such a thing as a political prosecution, if it can happen to Anwar, it can happen to the rest of us,” Anifah said.

He and Clinton said they discussed cooperation on issues including trade, science, education, Afghanistan and nuclear nonproliferation. Clinton added she also planned to sign a series of agreements with Malaysia during her trip.

“First, a memorandum of understanding between our two governments designed to expand our collaboration on research and development of new technologies; second, a partnership between the government of Malaysia and Johns Hopkins University to build a new medical school and teaching hospital here in Malaysia; and finally, the sale of 50 Pratt & Whitney airplane engines to Malaysia Airlines, which will create new jobs in both countries,” Clinton told reporters.

Clinton’s visit to Malaysia is part of her 13-day trip to meet with leaders of at least eight East Asian and Pacific nations.

The secretary began traveling October 27 and is set to visit Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Australia and American Samoa before returning to Washington November 8. The secretary’s trip overlaps with President Obama’s travel to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan November 6–14.

Meanwhile, Najib is quietly hiding away from the public eye with claims of chicken pox and gastric issues. And who can blame him?

Evidently, it is not only Rosmah that he fears, but also Hillary Clinton and Julia Gillard too. I guess too many women in one's life can give one stomach ulcers.

Wednesday, 3 November 2010

INVITATION TO THE LAUNCH OF BERSIH 2.0
UNITE AND ADVANCE ELECTORAL REFORM

We, the BERSIH 2.0 steering committee, invite your organisation to join and unite with us to advance clean and fair elections in Malaysia. Much still needs to be done and BERSIH 2.0 needs your support and help to make the mission come true for a democratic Malaysia.

BERSIH 2.0 believes that it is only when elections are clean and fair, can citizens determine their own destiny and expect holders of public office to act accountably and effectively. The road to electoral reform is part and parcel of the democratic process to put into place the rule of law, human rights protection, good governance and sustainable development in Malaysia. As citizens, we can make this our reality.

The key issues of electoral reform include
1. A complete revision of the electoral roll to ensure that the existing irregularities are removed and a roll with full integrity is in place.
2. The use of indelible ink (as is done in Indonesia and India) to prevent multiple voting.
3. The reform of postal voting to abolish the existing separate electoral roll for postal voters and to make it flexible for all voters, at home or abroad, with valid reasons to opt for postal voting.
4. Free and fair media access for all contesting parties, which should include: (a) free access to state-owned media especially television and radio; (b) fair paid access (political advertisement) to private media; and (c) provision of the right of reply for all contesting parties and personalities who are covered negatively in news reports.
5. A meaningful minimum campaign period of 21 days.
6. Fair and professional practices in constituency redelineation exercises to minimise mal-apportionment, gerrymandering and consequent disproportionality in seats and votes.
7. Automatic registration of all eligible voters.
8. Reduction of the voting eligibility age from 21 to 18 years old.9. Reform in electoral financing to ensure transparency and limit the influence of money politics.
10. Administrative neutrality of all levels of governments before, during and after general and by-elections for the federal and state legislatures.
11. Affirming the right of all students of 18 years and above, to participate in politics inside and outside campus.

Bersih 2.0, whilst acknowledging the importance of the reform agenda of Bersih, is now relaunched as a fully non-partisan coalition of civil society groups. It is a movement of ordinary citizens asserting the right of all, to clean and fair elections as guaranteed by law. We must ensure our votes and voices count.

We, therefore, warmly invite you and your organisations to join us and extend your full support to ensure that the next election and future ones will be clean, fair and democratic.